The Democratic Republic of The Congo



Part Two of a Series

An article titled The Truth is Coming Out aided in this research. This article can be read here. Other media sources were also consulted. They were gathered mainly through Lexus-Nexus.

WHY THE VIOLENCE?

Part of the reason for the violence in the DRC has to do with foreign intervention, namely Uganda and Rwanda, who apparently are fighting each other in Congolese territory. Ugandan and Rwandan supported militias control the eastern half of the nation.

The Kabila government's allies, incidentally, are Angola, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe will be covered in a future series.

Rwanda and Uganda intervened in Congo due to their own security concerns (with the rise of Laurent Kabila, the nation had become extremely unstable) and they wanted a chance to profit off of the DRC's vast mineral wealth, talked about in Part One. Of course, these proxy troops disrupted an already chaotic situation. In addition, neighboring Rwanda has its own horrors which sent hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing into what was then named Zaire.

Human Rights Watch and the IRC estimate that the death toll, due to war, pestilence, and famine, is between three and five million people. Three million more are estimated to be displaced by the violence.

In recent weeks, Uganda has pulled troops out of regions under its "control" leaving tribes to fight each other. Which they did.

HOW ARE WE COMPLICIT?

This is mainly my own opinion. In the last decade of the last century, we saw horrors like the Rwanda, the Balkans, East Timor, Sudan, and a host of other nations. All these countries are tucked off into some remote corner of the world. You don't hear about them much. Then, they start bloody civil wars, genocides, politicides, purges and what have you which are all things that should inflame our senses. After the Holocaust, we said never again. After the War of Yugoslav Dissolution (I read that somewhere, and technically it's probably going to end up being the correct term for it when history looks back) we said never again. After Rwanda we said never again. How many more times do we have to say never again before we truly mean it? Never again.

Three to five million dead. Three million displaced, out of reach of humanitarian aid.

Now in Part One, I was annoyed by the silence of the Congressional Black Caucus mainly because, well, they're of African descent. In reality, I probably should be angry at everyone. The whole damn world has watched the DRC fall apart and done very little. The United Nations sent in too few peacekeepers who couldn't do a thing. No world organization that I could find has yet to decry and ban the purchase of diamonds and minerals mined from Eastern Congo and funneled through Rwanda and Uganda.*

*(Although, then again, those bans don't really work. Liberia has one in place, yet manages to fund its bloody little war....correction...the Kimberley Process is a start.)

Why should we care though? Simple. They're human beings, and they deserve the same things we enjoy in the developed world.

Part Three will try to think up solutions, and bring the latest developments. It'll be a few days yet, because I have to think up what I think a decent solution for this dangerous situation should be. I think I'll also talk about why I care so much.







Jesus. (courtesy of Newsday)



A background on the last year in the DRC (from Human Rights Watch)